Easy homemade pop tarts are grain-free, egg-free & refined-sugar-free. A delicious, healthy(ish) breakfast your kids will love!
Breakfast always seems to be the hardest meal on Pesach (Passover). The default seems to be matza with jam and/or cheese, but it gets quite boring quite quickly. I find that after about day 3, the novelty’s worn off, and I’m craving something more interesting.
My daughter Kipper reaches that point after breakfast on day one.
A healthy breakfast?
I don’t normally associate pop-tarts either with Pesach, or with a healthy start to the day. However I created these homemade pop tarts, which are made without grains, gluten, eggs or refined sugar, and pack in 7g protein per tart. They’re even vegan. And they’re also delicious!
Homemade pop tarts – ingredients
To make a batch of these easy homemade pop tarts, you will need just a few basic ingredients. They are:
- Ground almonds
- Potato flour – also known as potato starch
- Margarine – or use butter if you don’t mind having dairy
- Banana – adds sweetness and moisture
- Fruit spread or jam – or your choice of filling
Easy filling
The filling for these healthy homemade pop tarts is simply an all-fruit jam, with no added sugar. I like to use these jams as they have a fresh, more fruity flavour, as well as more fibre than traditional jams. However you could use a regular fruit jam if you prefer, or even some sliced fresh fruit. I think fresh sliced peaches or nectarines would be delicious.
Quick dough
The dough for the crusts of these homemade pop tarts is simplicity itself, and takes only a few minutes to make. However it is very soft so don’t try and get away without the freezing steps, or it will be impossible to handle! You really do need to chill the dough before rolling out, and then again once you’ve rolled and cut it. It can be quite tricky to manoeuvre one piece on top of another, even with the chilling steps. However, I’m sure that if I managed to do it, you can too.
Good for you and delicious too!
These healthy homemade pop tarts are really quite delicious. The crust is light and crumbly, with just a hint of sweet banana flavour. I’m tempted to make this my go to Pesach sweet pastry recipe from now on. I think it would make great little jam tarts, or the base for a frangipane topped slice of some kind.
Homemade pop tarts – no toaster required!
I had worried that the crust would be quite fragile, but once baked, the pastry holds up pretty well. That said, I wouldn’t try putting one of these homemade pop tarts in the toaster! They’re great eaten at room temperature, but if you want to warm them up slightly, simply pop them into a warm oven for a few minutes.
This recipe makes 4 healthy homemade pop tarts, but you can double the recipe and use a whole banana to make eight if you want to. They will keep for a day or two in an air-tight box.
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📖 Recipe
Healthy homemade pop tarts
Ingredients
- 100 g ground almonds
- 75 g potato flour
- 55 g margarine
- ½ medium banana
- 100 g sugar-free fruit jam (or thereabouts)
Instructions
- Put the almonds and potato flour into a food processor and pulse a few times to give a fine powder. Mash the banana and add to the almond mixture with the margarine. Blend in the food processor for a few seconds until a soft dough forms.
- Wrap the dough in cling film (plastic wrap), and freeze for 10-15 minutes.
- Roll out the dough between two sheets of baking parchment, to a thickness of around 4mm (approx. ⅛ inch). Aim to roll into a large rectangle shape to minimise offcuts. Cut the rolled out dough into eight rectangles of roughly equal size. Return to the freezer for a further 10 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 175°C (345°F).
- Place around 1½ tablespoon of jam on each of four of the rectangles. Carefully cover with the other four rectangles and press the edges together to seal with the tines of a fork. Make holes in the top of each pop tart to allow steam to escape.
- Bake at 175°C (345°F) for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool before eating.
Notes
Nutrition
More Passover breakfast ideas and recipes
There are 8 more Pesach breakfast ideas in my recipe book, Helen’s delicious Pesach, and you can also find a great selection of family-approved Pesach breakfast ideas here.
Angela Sander
Pop tarts look delicious.
Helen
Thanks Angela! They are a Pesach favourite in our house 🙂
Debbie I
ב”ה
I’m vegan and ketogenic — a lot of ingredients I can’t use, but I am the queen of substitutes — I’m going to try coconut flour instead of potato starch and I add stevia to just about everything — I can’t eat banana anyway — I may try avocado or nut butter — I don’t use margarine (trans fats) but coconut flour or nut butter is a good substitute.
BTW, for the Americans in the bunch, 175 degrees C is about 350 degrees F (347 to be exact, but my oven doesn’t have 347, lol)
Helen
Wow – I’d love to hear how you get on with the substitutions! Thanks for your comment, and have a great Pesach 🙂
Shelley Shields
oops…sorry, just noticed they have potato flour, which I don’t have. Any substitutions?
Helen
I’ve never tried them with anything else, sorry. I know some people use tapioca flour in a similar way to potato flour, so maybe try that if you have it. Sorry I can’t be more help!
Shelley Shields
Hi Helen, I would love to try the pop tarts for Pesach…could you please provide the ingredient quantities in volume measurements ? Thanks
crewgrrl
Not a big fan of banana – what else could you use as a binder?
Helen
The banana acts as a sweetener as well as a binder, and there isn’t a strong banana flavour in the finished loaf.
If you really don’t want to use banana, maybe try substituting apple sauce, although I haven’t done this so I don’t know how it would turn out…
All the best, Helen.
Elizabeth
Going to try these…. See if my 2 yr old will be fooled. Tnx
Ayanne
These look fantastic. Can you make them in advance?
Helen
Yes. They will keep for a few days in an airtight box.
Kate - gluten free alchemist
I love these! They sound genius! bookmarked!
Helen
Thanks Kate! They came out brilliantly (considering all the things that weren’t I them!)
manjirichitnis
Fabulous recipe Helen, grain free and refined sugar free is fab though I must admit that I had to goggle up a few words to understand what you meant . That fruity inside looks very- very tempting!
Helen
Thanks. Yes, the fruity interior is the best bit!
Becca @ Amuse Your Bouche
The pastry sounds so intriguing!! Potato and banana!! I would NEVER have come up with that but they look amazing!
Helen
Thanks Becca! I guess necessity is the mother of invention and all that! I was really pleased with how they came out.
Arna
I don’t have any potato flour, Can I use potato starch?
Helen
I believe it’s pretty much the same thing Arna. Let me know how they turn out!